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Vision

To help transition Japan to a peace promoting post-carbon country while enjoying every step of the process.僕のビジョンは、祖国日本で、平和文化を育みポストカーボン（Post-Carbon) 社会を促進してゆく事です。化石燃料や原子力に頼らず、他国の資源を取らない、自給自足な国へのトランジションを実現させてゆきたいです。

Thursday, September 1, 2016

Just flew in a few days ago to visit my brother at Tillers International(check it out), where he is learning how to farm with oxen, handle horses, weld, make rope, brooms, the list goes on. Yesterday, we went into Detroit and had an insightful tour of economic collapse and urban grassroots renewal by Richard Feldman of the Boggs Center (check it out). And now heading to the Possibility Alliance (check it out) where my brother used to live, and that I have heard much about. PA seems to be a hub of inspiring people living in sacred integrity with the earth. No electricity, no fossil fuels, simple hand-and-earth-made living. Hard to find much info on them online but I've come to realize that the really amazing things cannot be found easily online.

Meanwhile in Japan, we signed a lease to start a Peace (nonviolence) and Permaculture Dojo for 10 years in Isumi, Chiba prefecture. The educational programs, nonviolent communication 6-day immersion training and permaculture design course have already started on my friend Phil Cashman's site in Southern Chiba. We're going to start renovating the old Japanese thatch-roofed kominka (means old house) and turn it into a guesthouse by April 2017.

The 2.5 acre lot was an old Japanese homestead with a mini cow barn, bamboo grove, fruit trees, rice paddies, and garden. Still off-grid too! More to come about that, but I'm hoping for it to be a refuge and training site for ecologically rooted peace activists. Part of my vision for growing social change infrastructure in Japan. Really hoping to keep the country from fully engaging in war. But, the military-industrial-complex is powering up and the government is trying their best to change article 9 of our pacifist constitution. We're going to have to get really creative!

GRATITUDE FIRST
Thank you for finding your way to this website!
Thank you internet for making this connection possible!
Thank you Earth for being a most generous host!

ABOUT Tokyo Urban Permaculture
Tokyo Urban Permaculture (TUP) is a project that Kai Sawyer started around 2011. He was a second-year permaculture apprentice at the Bullocks Permaculture Homestead when the Fukushima nuclear meltdown tragically occurred. He decided to venture into the heart of the problem, Tokyo, to explore what seeds of hope he could grow in the busy radioactive world that he was born in.

TUP started out as a place for Kai to share permaculture, compassionate communication (aka Nonviolent Communication), mindfulness (based on Thich Naht Hanh’s teachings), systems thinking through games, gift economy, and creative activism from primarily from the Bay Area of California. Workshops and presentations are primarily offered as a gift (more about the gift economy here) and anybody is welcome to join. Interventions and experiments such as guerrilla gardening, street meditations, youth climate change actions, and developing community gardens have been a central part of TUP activities.

2015
A crowd-sourced and crowd-funded book-like zine, Urban Permaculture Guide, was published and has become one of the most read permaculture books in Japan. See Living Permaculture (book) for more.

2016
After several years of soil-building, TUP has now blossomed into a community of social change growers exploring how can we co-create a culture that is moved by love for the earth and peace. Activities are not limited to “Tokyo”, “Urban”, or “Permaculture”, but the focus is on regenerating Tokyo into a urban culture that supports life rather than consuming it.

In some ways, TUP is just a name, a blog and website, a flag where people can come to for healing, hope, and action. The movement in Japan is much larger than TUP, and we are just another branch of an inspiring earth-wide movement. Nothing more exciting than this!

Since our focus is on supporting non-English-literate Japanese, most information is in Japanese…until we find someone passionate about translating for us. We love connecting with the English-literate too so feel free to write us or support us in any way! Just be warned that few of us are bilingual and so our responses might be rather slow. Reminders are welcome if you don’t get a response in a week or something like that. Since we are all volunteers slowly building up our social infrastructure, our capacity is still quite limited.

Thanks for reading and happy to be on the planet with you!

moved by love
Kai and the inspiring TUP team

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When you understand, you love. And when you love, you naturally act in a way that can relieve the suffering of people. -Thay (TNH)

Farming is a way of life in which one constantly reaffirms the source of life. - Fukuoka Masanobu

Work is energy. Two crises of our times are intimately connected — the climate crisis and the unemployment crisis.....To make the energy transition beyond oil, we need to bring people back into the economy, bring human energy back into production, respect physical work, and give it dignity. - Vandana Shiva

Thursday, July 14, 2016

Hey all
So much to share but just haven't gotten around to posting in English. Sorry! But, if you use google translate and check out Tokyo Urban Permaculture, you might get a glimps....or maybe its finally time to learn Japanese!

I recently visited Satish Kumar at Schumacher College, spent over a week at Plum Village France, went to an AWAKIN CIRCLE in Paris, and finished it off with my first visit to Hunderwasserhaus! So much inspiration.

When I came back the community garden I decided to start the day before I left for my trip was bumpin with food! Yes! How to design yourself out of projects you start, that has been the edge I'm exploring. Nation elections were also happening so I helped anti-war, anti-nuclear power, peace and democracy advocate Miyake Yohei (reggae musician) try to get votes. He didn't make it but he has sparked an interesting youth-centered participatory democracy movement. And and, it looks like we are going to seal the deal soon with the landlord of the future Peace and Permaculture (nonviolence) Dojo in Chiba. Next year I'm hoping to take on some interns, and do a few longer-term workshops like a PDC, nonviolent communication retreat, mindfulness retreat, etc. Japan is happening!!!!!

☆お席に限りがあります。当日参加できなくなった方は、キャンセルをしていただけると、お席を参加できる人に譲っていただくことになるのでありがたいです。ーーーーーーーーーーーーーーーーーーーーーーーーーーーWarm
greetings! You are cordially invited to join us at the 14th Karma
Kitchen event on 24th July. This is a lunch event where guests interact
with each other over a meal. Step into the restaurant and you will be
treated to a meal, paid by our previous customers. You have no
obligations to pay, but you are free to send your kindness and regards
to the next customer. Experience “paying forward”.

At this Karma
Kitchen event, all you need to do is to receive a gift to you from
previous participants and enjoy your meal. After your meal, you will be
given an envelope. You are free to put in any amount of money you wish
to pass on, or you could express your gratitude in any shapes and sizes,
by performing a song, doing a good deed and so on.

The 14th
Karma Kitchen event will be held at a soup café called “Sign with Me”,
where the lingua franca is Japanese Sign Language. Don’t worry, of
course, if you don’t know sign language. It is also an opportunity to
experience diversity. Anyone and everyone is welcome!

(Please note that you are required to fill up the form below for official registration.)

Wednesday, February 24, 2016

Permaculture, nonviolence, gift economics, and more!!!(most links are to Japanese pages)

I’ll just share the highlights for now since the longer I write the less likely I’ll finish the post.

I’ve been putting a lot of energy into teaching things I love (e.g. permaculture, NVC, mindfulness, etc), doing experiments (e.g. guerrilla gardening in Tokyo, gift economy inspired book and tour), and connecting with lots and lots of people. Now I think we’ve done enough soil building to start planting a forest garden of social change.

From Tokyo Urban Permaculture (which is not actually limited to Tokyo, Urban, or Permaculture) being “my” project, I am shifting it to be a more community-based endeavor. A fun three-letter umbrella that can be used to connect people, provide legitimacy for projects, and propagate the idea that permaculture is not just about rural self-sufficiency.

What happens under the name of Tokyo Urban Permaculture (TUP) is a mix of

(urban) permaculture

nonviolent communication

mindfulness

gift economics

political activism

media activism

youth empowerment

and most importantly fun!

This year, we (TUP) are hoping to creating more opportunities for people to activate, get their hands dirty, and know there is a physical place they can go to (so far its just been my blog).

MARCH

I will return from India!

Currently, I’m in Goa in an area lightly developed for tourists (not a hint of the rave scene that most people associate with Goa). What has been quite pleasant to see is cows roaming around, even in the main street, and lots of fruiting perennials. Tons of coconut trees in gardens, common spaces, and along roads. Many mango trees, guava, banana, papaya, pomegranate, cashew, and other ones I don’t know. Wonderful to be surrounded by fresh food (the fruits not the cow)!

PERMACULTURE UPDATE

MEDIA

＊(perma) Culture-Building＊

Murmur magazine (who published the Urban Permaculture Guide) will publish a special on permaculture. They have a young alternative dedicated readership so I think it will boost curiosity and commitment. They’ve also interviewed Masanobu Fukuoka’s grandson in the past, who inherited part of Masanobu’s legacy but has made some fundamental changes. No time to discuss that now.

We’re also planning to make a comprehensive permaculture manual featuring traditional and emergent Japanese designs (ethno-ecological and socio-cultural) in the next year. Not sure yet if we will design the book for just domestic use or for an international audience. We will see.

Permaculture has been featured more and more in the media, even in Casa Brutus (a mainstream magazine that is sold in most convenience stores….meaning almost everywhere in Japan). We just need more physical examples to inspire people.

PAWA PERMACULTURE DESIGN COURSE

＊Collaborating with All-Stars＊

Phil Cashman, Kyle Ho, and I will be launching a PDC at PAWA in Chiba! I think only Permaculture Center Japan (PCCJ) has been offering PDCs in Japan, so this will be a great chance to add diversity and increase opportunities to learn about permaculture design. Phil and I have been talking about how many opportunities related to permaculture are coming to us, but we don’t have time and energy to receive them all. The problem is the solution! We need more permaculture teachers and designers. Yes!

I’ve also wanted to collaborate with Phil and Kyle for several years so this is a dream come true! It’s going to be a multi-cultural PDC in Japanese with permaculture home stays at 3-different sites. The course filled up soon after we posted the ad so looks like we’ll need to do another one soon. At the same time, all three of us are more into hands-on stuff then lecturing about design, so we’ll see what happens after this first one.

Commune 246 is a Portland inspired multi-purpose space in the heart of the youth fashion district in Tokyo. It’s more commercial than I enjoy, but it’s a dynamic multi-cultural gathering place with many young creative professionals. The space is a mix of Portland-style food carts designed by architecture students at Tokyo University, a co-working office space, and Freedom University (like free school in the sense of “free” topics but Tokyo prices).

After a year of talking about urban permaculture, building relationships, thinking and proposing designs, we finally got the green light to install a roof-top garden! Yah mun!!! They already have food carts and a marginally used worm bin, so all they need is a bump`n garden. The design will focus on inspiring aesthetics (looks are essential here), producing edibles for the food carts, and cycling organic matter (food-cart, compost, garden, food-cart). My hope is that this will lead to more opportunities to make community gardens in Tokyo, and mobilize media, social and financial capital.

I’ve always wanted to have a physical place to grow a forest garden and learning community. Inspired by places like the Bullocks Permaculture Homestead (Washington), Casa De Paz (California), Plum Village (around the world), Schumacher College (U.K.), and Pun Pun farm (Thailand), it’s time that I start a longer-term land-based project. My focus is to explore what Satish Kumar phrases as the trinity of our time, soil, soul, and society.

Like the Bullocks, I want to offer a skill-building residential program particularly for youth, which in the permaculture field seems to be non-existent in Japan. I also want to explore and practice ahimsa or nonviolence, and experiment with social activism (i.e. changing educational, political and economic institutions). So, this will be a big experiment, to integrate permaculture, NVC, mindfulness, giftivism, and FUN! A place to be the change we wish to see in the world.

At the moment, I’m looking for land on the East-side of the Boso Peninsula, Chiba. Mainly because I want to work with Phil who lives in that region, and I want to have access to Tokyo (my target population). But, Shonan (South Kanagawa) is tempting and is also a possible area. More on this to come.

A chance to explore nonviolence in practice, and jam-out with those dedicated to NVC in Japan, in a permaculture setting. Hoping to organize regular retreats and practice groups in the future. April 17~22

Awakin Circle Tokyo

Awakin circles have deeply moved me and I think it will really help the development of my consciousness around nonviolence and giftivism (gift economy). It’ll be another great chance to practice giving from the heart, and developing the gift economy in Tokyo! Starting April or May?

Tour to learn with Satish Kumar at Schumarcher College. Satish has been a huge inspiration to me since my days at University of California Santa Cruz, and now I have a chance to take people to spend a week with him. June 5~11

Then an optional tour to Plum Village France for part of the 21-Day retreat exploring engaged buddhism. They also have started garden/permaculture projects which I’m quite curious about. June 12~21

West Coast Permaculture Tour

Annual tour to the Bullocks Permaculture Homestead, Portland’s City Repair and ecovillages, and Seattle’s urban permaculture scene. One of my favorite things to do! Many of my close collaborators in Japan are former tour participants.

Traditional Japanese Living and Permaculture tour for English-speakers

Lots of cool places I’d love to share like Yoshiki Hayashi’s projects in Kamogawa, Chiba, the Kabata culture featured in the documentary Satoyama, and the premier natural farming school Akamejuku. I was thinking of a 10~14 day tour in October. What do you think?

Or I might help out with a tour to take Japanese activists to Bioneers, and tour around Bay Area activist hubs. Hmmm….

End of the year I will probably go to Thai Plum Village to translate and help with sangha building. Hoping to also visit Pun Pun farm again and facilitate an empathetic communication retreat.

Monday, February 15, 2016

Here are some inspiring TEDx talks on urban gardening and more! I think its really important to propagate not just gardens and gardeners, but stories of possibility. Growing a culture that encourages life! And while these are both amazing projects with powerful speakers, there are billions of stories and acts of active hope that are happening across the globe. Keep spreading the stories, and planting seeds.

RON FINLEY: A Guerilla Gardener in South Central LA

Ron Finley plants vegetable gardens in South Central LA — in abandoned lots, traffic medians, along the curbs. Why? For fun, for defiance, for beauty and to offer some alternative to fast food in a community where "the drive-thrus are killing more people than the drive-bys."

PAM WARHURST: How We Can Eat Our Landscapes

What should a community do with its unused land? Plant food, of course. With energy and humor, Pam Warhurst tells at the TEDSalon the story of how she and a growing team of volunteers came together to turn plots of unused land into communal vegetable gardens, and to change the narrative of food in their community.

BRITTA RILEY: A Garden In My Apartment

Britta Riley wanted to grow her own food (in her tiny apartment). So she and her friends developed a system for growing plants in discarded plastic bottles — researching, testing and tweaking the system using social media, trying many variations at once and quickly arriving at the optimal system. Call it distributed DIY. And the results? Delicious.

Sunday, January 3, 2016

Happy New Year!!!!!!
Happy New Day!!!!
Hope you are enjoying your moments.

Just finished a nourishing retreat at Thai Plum Village, and now heading to Pun Pun in Chiang Mai. I've heard quite a bit about Pun Pun and Panya in permaculture and other alternative circles.

For those who are curioushttp://www.punpunthailand.org
"Punpun is a small organic farm and learning center in north of Thailand, where we practice sustainable living through seed saving, natural building and appropriate technology."
See below for an amazing TEDx talk by one of the founders.

After that, will ride a sleeper train back to Bangkok and do two talks. One at SUAN MOKE temple. Another at a new community center by a engaged buddhist activist friend (still waiting for details). Below is the ad for Suan Moke. I'm planning to talk about urban permaculture in Tokyo, Portland, mindfulness experiments, nonviolence (ahimsa), and how to transform urban culture through the giftivism (gift economy activism).

"Finding Peace in the Inner Landscape"

Kai Sawyer, a permaculturalist and practicing engaged buddhist now living in Tokyo has been working to help find peace in ourselves and in the metropolis. In Bangkok we face similar challenges, confronted both in our minds and in our city with pollution, chaos, and distraction.

Here from this young inspiring practitioner/ activist about his journey in this process and how he is helping others to wake up to the possibilities.

Welcome!

ようこそ！

You have arrived to a bilingual blog about sustainability, permaculture, and peace activism. Yeah! Please leave a comment if you feel inspired.Thanks for visiting and I hope you spread the seeds:) *the ratio of English to Japanese changes unexpectedly so if there is a lot of strange foreign characters, check out older articles might have the more familiar alphabet.

About Me

A "half", as they call us in Japan, who grew up in metropolis and rural Japan, Hawaii, Santa Cruz CA, Central America, and now Orcas Island WA. Taking a stroll through the path of permaculture, mindfulness, and love. Looking for more like-minded people in Japan or people interested in transforming Japan...
百姓／平和活動家／パーマカルチャー・デザイナーのヒヨコです。ブロックス・パーマカルチャー・ホームステッド（ワシントン州のオーカス島）で弟子入り生活をしていましたが、今は東京で平和と愛を育む活動をしています。先生、仲間、プロジェクト、土地を捜しています！